K. Marrero1, E. King1, A. Fingeret2 1St. George’s University School Of Medicine,St. George’s, St. George’s, Grenada 2University Of Nebraska College Of Medicine,Omaha, NE, USA
The increasing use of review websites by consumers has become a crucial first step in choosing a physician with more than half of Americans consulting review sites prior to physician selection. While prior research has analyzed online reviews of physicians, a difference in these surgeon reviews based on gender of surgeon has yet to be assessed. We sought to identify whether differences exist in the quality and content of online reviews for men versus women surgeons.
Using a deliberate sampling algorithm of the two most populated physician review websites, RateMDs.com and Yelp.com, we purposefully sampled reviews for the top 20 surgeons per tercile of search results for general and subspecialty surgeons from the four most populated urban areas in the United States: New York, Houston, Los Angeles, and Chicago. A qualitative assessment was performed using grounded theory content analysis of major and minor thematic elements including: global rating – overall experience, would return to provider, hostility, would recommend to others; communication – professional, welcoming, accommodating, honest, made comfortable, bedside manner; technical – outcomes, attention to detail, healing process, informative, technical skill, safety; and comments on ancillary elements – staff interactions, wait time, insurance issues, litigation, and scheduling. Plastic and reconstructive surgeons were excluded to eliminate reviews by aesthetic surgery patients.
Four-hundred and thirty-nine online patient reviews were identified for 231 surgeons from RateMDs.com (51%) and Yelp.com (49%). Seventy-six percent of reviews were of male surgeons, mimicking the gender difference in the actual workforce.
Most themes mentioned in online reviews were positive with male surgeons having an average of 75 percent positive reviews while female surgeons had an average of 68 percent positive reviews.
The content of online physician reviews differed for men and women surgeons. Women surgeons were more likely to have comments on social interactions and bedside manner, while men surgeons were more likely to have a global review or mention of technical skill (Table 1).
While online reviews of surgeon include both male and female counterparts, the content of reviews differs by gender. While men surgeons have more comments on the overall experience and technical aspects, women surgeons are critiqued more on their social skills.
